What is Uber Freight and Why is it Helping the Truck Labor Shortage

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Uber Freight is an expansion of the traditional Uber app but instead of transporting people from place to place like a taxi service, Uber freight is more of a generic trucking and shipping company with the classic Uber self-employed twist. Through their app, they allow businesses to connect to trucking companies or self managed commercial drivers in order to transport shipments.

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, employment in almost every industry is down and is still having a hard time getting back to its previous state. The trucking a freight industry was hit pretty hard by the pandemic, losing employees at record numbers. Part of being a truck driver is having to be away from home and loved ones for extended periods of time. Once the world started to shut down, many truckers quit and resigned to be with their family in those unprecedented times.

Head of Uber Freight Lior Ron had this to say about the driver’s point of view, “If you think about truck drivers, at the end of day, it’s harder for them to be on the road. There’s better alternative in driving closer to home and maybe doing last-mile delivery,” he then goes on to say “We’re asking them to do more and more and more, and maybe they don’t want to even have to go on the road because they have to be stuck in facilities or they have to take on health concerns. It requires all of us.”

Uber Freight is offering somewhat of a solution to this truck labor shortage because it allows drivers to build their own schedule and chose the shipments they want to carry. The app makes it much easier for businesses to connect to truckers and vise-versa which in turn, is leading to higher employment rates in the freight and trucking industry.